Buzz-worthy dining venues with waiting lists for reservations are no big thing in Los Angeles. But back in 2009, one that hit the scene was run out of the North University Park apartment of two USC sophomores, Robert Kronfli ’11 and Alex Chang ’11.

Despite what you might see on TV courtroom dramas, being a good litigator is not about being aggressive, flashy or devious. “To make it work, you must build a story around your facts,” says Wilma Williams Pinder ’62, with the conviction of a seasoned lawyer.

Seeking an alternative to text-heavy voter guides, Nate Kaplan came up with the idea to create short, nonpartisan video clips to explain ballot measures. He made a trial-run series of black-and-white, low-budget videos that have evolved into SeePolitical.com.

A clinical psychologist in private practice, Priscilla Partridge de Garcia works with clients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Through her one-on-one work with patients, she helps heal unseen wounds that lie deep in the psyche.

Karen Adelman MFA ’12 flew to Colombia to track down bullerengue, a form of music and dance. She returned to Los Angeles and last year presented her installation, La Bulla y Restos, which translates roughly to “the ruckus and remainders.”

At a young age, Myiesha Taylor MD ’00 knew she wanted to be a doctor. When the ear of her beloved toy rabbit, Bunny, came off, she performed triage and sewed on a new ear made of yarn. She even created a medical record for her patient—one of the many toys in her playroom under her care.

A preserver of rock ’n’ roll history, Jeff Gold ’79 is a gift to the vinyl revival. As a kid, he collected records and then resold them—developing a shrewd comprehension of vinyl currency. He even traveled to Europe to find rare albums for his mail-order business, all while he was still a teenager.

Carly Rogers OTD ’11, MA ’04 learned early on that water heals. Her mother died when Rogers was only 18, and Rogers, then a Los Angeles County lifeguard, used to cleanse her grief in the Pacific’s salty waves.

As a young girl, Aja Brown ’04, MPL ’05 had an unusual interest: real estate and construction. She’d beg her mom to take her to local development projects, and on Sundays she’d analyze the Los Angeles Times classifieds to compare rental units in different areas and cities.

On any given day, marine scientist Lia Protopapadakis '01 might be calibrating an ultrasound machine to determine the sex of a halibut, diving into a kelp forest to evaluate restoration efforts or lobbying local chefs to put California spiny lobsters on their menus.

As president and CEO of the Special Olympics World Games, Patrick McClenahan '80 has a colossal job as Los Angeles gears up to host the 2015 games: housing and feeding 3,000 coaches and 7,000 athletes from 170 nations for 12 days.

Haifa Reda Jamalallail PhD ’91 is juggling her culture with her belief in the power of education, and she's making it work for the benefit of women as the president of Effat University, the first private institution of higher education for women in Saudi Arabia.

After earning two degrees at USC, Liza Cherney moved to Boston, where she received her MBA from Boston College in May 2013. A month before graduating, she attended the Boston Marathon -- and saw her life change forever in the wake of tragic bombing.

Stark Sands BFA ’01 is revisiting the same situation he was in 12 years ago: playing the lead role in a big musical. But instead of performing in the USC School of Dramatic Arts’ production of Pippin, he now stars on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical Kinky Boots.

Ask Sheryl Gordon McCloud JD ’84 about herself, and she’ll talk to you about others. A member of the Washington State Supreme Court since January, she’ll point to professors, friends, her husband and the two sons who inspired and supported her...

He keeps retiring, but Ambassador R. Barrie Walkley MA ’75 just can’t seem to make it stick. The 68-year-old career diplomat is on his third diplomatic assignment since his official retirement as ambassador to Gabon, São Tomé and Príncipe in 2008.

Lizette Salas ’11 was only 7 when her father showed her a proper golf swing. Being head mechanic at the public Azusa Greens Golf Course had some perks, and Ramon Salas made sure his kids learned to play. But Lizette, his youngest, was special.

As the editor-in-chief of Motor Trend magazine, Edward Loh ’98 is all about speed. And he’s driven. One day he’s flying to the Motor Show in Paris, the next day he’s zipping around the back roads of Seville, Spain, in a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.

When Lizette Zarate ’02 looks at students in USC’s Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI), she sees herself almost 20 years ago — a gifted young girl getting an education that she otherwise wouldn’t have received.

When Paula Daniels ’77, Broadcast Journalism, was growing up in Hawaii, her grandfather taught her about malama aina — stewardship of the land. “He said, ‘We don’t own this land, we’re just taking care of it for the next generations.

Best known as the founder of the Wine of the Month Club, Paul Kalemkiarian Sr. ’50, MS ’52 is also a successful pharmacist who ran the first drugstore on the USC campus and discovered domestic plant sources of an antidote to nerve gas.

As the young director of Pomona College’s Museum of Art in the early 1970s, Helene Winer ’66 made tongues wag with her avant-garde curating. One of the artists she introduced was Chris Burden, who launched bundles of lit matches at a nude woman across the gallery.

Eric Brown ’78 and Renee Cottrell-Brown ’78 laugh a lot. Remarkable, some might say, for a couple who live and work together as CEO and executive vice president of sales and marketing, respectively, at the Dallas-based Johnson Products Company Inc.

Boris Dramov ’66 has designed numerous buildings, parkways and plazas, including Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade. But now he has designed something few United States architects can match: a monument on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall.

James “Jimmy” Reese ’46 is a busy man. He’ll do some stock market trading, arbitrate a dog bite case and set up meetings for a new education intervention program at USC - all in a day. At 92, Reese doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon.

David K. Hansen ’85 dreamed of opening a restaurant, but instead spearheaded the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle program, estimated to have saved thousands of American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As series producer of National Geographic Channel’s Great Migrations, David Hamlin MFA ’94 put together an international team of cinematographers, scientists and writers to film wildlife on the move across the planet.

Two years ago during the height of the recession, Steven Atamian ’04 did the unthinkable: He left his job in corporate America to give his time and energy to the nonprofit organization he co-founded a few years earlier.

His USC Marshall School of Business professors drilled him on financial plans and feasibility studies, but no one prepared Roberto Lee MBA‘04 for what it would take to run a company in the wild, wild East.

If you asked Ree Drummond ’91 in 1991 where she was headed in life, chances are she wouldn’t have said a ranch outside of Pawhuska, Okla. But that’s where she ended up when she fell in love with a cowboy.

Jeff Byers ’07, MBA ’09 came to USC for football but got much more. When the offensive lineman was drafted into the NFL in April, he took with him a master’s in business administration from USC Marshall.

You can’t see them in Mount Vernon, NY’s dark Bassline Cafe, but jazz pianist Donald Vega ’99 has angels on his shoulder. He may swing with the grace of Oscar Peterson, but he's traveled a hard road to get here.

If you were to draw up a list of the hardest working volunteers at USC, Carol Campbell Fox MS ’62 would surely be near the top. The energetic alumna could teach a master class on efficient multi-tasking.

Ellen Hunter Mai ’91 lives an extraordinary life. She has hunted pirates in the Malacca Straits, toured the illegal diamond mines of Sierra Leone, reported from Afghanistan and tracked communist rebels in Peru.